Opium Poppy (P. somniferum L.) is one of the oldest and most important medicinal plant, known to mankind since centuries. Its commercial cultivation lies in several European and Asian countries under the strict control of International Narcotics Control Bureau (INCB), Vienna. The opium is obtained in the form of latex by the incision of unripe capsule, is a chief source of number of alkaloids of great medicinal and economic uses in pharmaceutical industries. Out of these alkaloids, morphine, codeine, thebaine, narcotine and papaverine are the major ones, used mainly for the preparation of pain killing drugs. India is one of the world's largest producers of licit opium (Singh et al., Advances in Horticulture-Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Vol.11, ICAR Publication, N. Delhi, 436-474,1995). Beside, meeting the domestic demands, opium alkaloids and their derivatives are being exported up to Rs.1320 million in the recent years. The area under crop cultivation in India varies according the world demand put up through United Nations.
During 2000, 35,271 ha land was under opium poppy cultivation and 1302 MT opium (90% consistency) was produced. The use of opium alkaloids has increased steadily much in recent years and global demand for codeine and thebaine increased manifold due to its non-narcotic properties. Thebaine utilization in pharmacopoeia has increased about 10 folds from 1994 (5.8 MTs) to 2000 (45.6 MTs). Similarly consumption of codeine for drug purposes has increased from 160 MT in 1981-82 to 169 in 2000, while its derivatives mainly dihydrocodeine and hydrocodeine has increased five times to a recent level of 80 MTs in 2000. However, the morphine apart from being used in medical treatment is predominantly converted into codeine which consumption has increased from 200 MTs in 1990 to 256 MTs in 2000 (Anonymous, Govt. of India, Ministry of Finance, Deptt. of Revenue, 2002, Shukla and Singh, Herbal Drugs and Biotechnology (Ed. P. C. Trivedi), Pointer Publishers, Jaipur, India, pp. 210-239, 2004).
The opium poppy is being primarily grown for opium latex and its derivatives but its seeds are also equally important by product due to rich in protein (up to 24%) and mineral content and are widely used in various preparation in confectionery industries, while in European countries it is grown for edible seed and seed oil (Eckey, Reinhold Publishing Co., Hy:447-449, 1954; Puspangadan and Singh, Wood Head Publishing, U.K. 261-268, 2001). Seeds are only part which are devoid of any alkaloids and is considered as aphrodisiac, constipating (Nerglz and Otles, J. Sci. Food Agric. 66: 117, 1994) and anti carcinogenic (Aruna, Food Chem. Toxicol. 30:11,1992). The seeds are rich source of edible oil (42.50%) with unsaturated fatty acids viz. palmitic acid (8.9-21.48%), stearic acid (1.4-10.8%), oleic acid (13.22-36.70%), linoleic acid (41.0-68%) and linolenic acid (0.00-9.40%) (Singh et al., Indian J. Agric. Sci. 60: 358-359,1990). Linoleic acid checks the blood cholesterol in human system and prevents atherosclerosis and heart attack (Singh et al., Advances in Horticulture-Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, vol.11, ICAR Publication, N. Delhi, 436-474,1995). Despite these uses, other parts of poppy plants are also used in several preparations (Singh et al., Advances in Horticulture-Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, vol. 11, ICAR Publication, N. Delhi, 436-474,1995).
Opium poppy crop is affected by several fungal pathogens causing losses in yield and a quantitative decrease in alkaloids content. Out of them, one of the major diseases, downy mildew caused by Pernospora arborescense is the most destructive and is fairly widespread affecting most of the common varieties of opium poppy cultivated in north India (Kothari and Prasad, Indian Phytopath. 23: 676-688, 1970; Sattar et al., CROMAP 17:315-320,1995; Bajpai et al., J. Phytopath. 147:535-538,1999). Powdery mildew caused by Erysiphae polygoni recorded from many localities and causes serious damage in Rajasthan, India (Kothari and Prasad, Indian Phytopath. 25: 36-39,1972). Its incidence is generally noticed at later stage of growth period and characterized by white powder on leaves and capsules. The disease damping off caused by Pythium dissotocum spreads rapidly in severely infected fields and kills the young plant population within 15-20 days of its appearance. Its occurrence mostly happens in misty weather conditions when humidity remains high for 8-10 days (Alam et al., Indian Phytopath. 49: 94-97,1995). The collar rot disease caused by Sclerotium rolfsii initially appears at the color region as well as stem of infected plants as dark brown necrotic lesions which later on resulted black in colour and toppling of the infected plants (Singh et al., Indian J. Pl. Path. 19, 1-11, 2003). Another disease stem/capsule rotting due to Sclerotinia sclerotiorum often attack the plants at capsule formation stage. The symptom start appearing as browning of the stem and leaf covered with lesions, which later on causes leaves fall off, capsules and stem show severe rotting (Hartman et al. Crop Sci. 40:545-549, 2000). Leaf spot and blight disease caused by Alternaira alternata spreads on the leaves as gray circular spots with concentric rings, which later turn black, and defoliation occurs.
Opium poppy is a most important medicinal plant but till now no any multiple disease resistant/tolerant and high opium yielding variety is available. However, in opium poppy efforts have been made towards the development of method for producing a disease resistant and high seed and husk yielding variety (Dhawan et al. 2003, U.S. Pat. No. 6,534,696). Similarly, increase in production of thebaine and oripavine from an improved poppy straw of a stably reproducing P. somniferum plant has been obtained (Fist et al. 2004, U.S. Pat. No. 6,723,894). Uptill now, the existing released varieties have maximum opium yield up to 54 kg/ha (Shukla et al., Indian Hort. 39(4): 7-9, 1994, Singh et al., Advances in Horticulture-Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, vol. 11, ICAR Publication, N. Delhi, 436-474,1995). Keeping it in mind, planned experiments were conducted at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India for the development of multiple disease resistant/tolerant high opium yielding variety. From the available germplasm/land races in the Institute, promising high yielding lines were screened and hybridized in a set-breeding pattern followed by repeated selection for desirable character in the advanced generations. The selected high yielding hybrids evaluated in preliminary, initial and multilocational trials along with checks under natural conditions followed by two years disease evaluation trials conducted in field with known history of sick soil for the past 20 years under natural epiphytotic conditions.